Fantasy News: Special Dynasty Edition

I’m sure you’re wondering why in the world I would make this edition dynasty only.    It’s simple: I don’t feel like talking about
Brett Favre. If you want
Favre news go to
Google.com and search for it. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of articles with the two words
Brett Favre in them, including this one – now three times. I’m sick of
Favre. What’s next – John Madden announcing he wants to un-retire and join Troy Aikman in the booth? Anyways, let’s get to the news already.

Let’s start things off in
Atlanta, where, according to the


Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, wide receiver
Roddy White and the Falcons are supposedly working on a new contract extension for the breakout star. And although nothing has been worked out just yet, White just feels good to finally get out and practice.

“I felt pretty good, getting back out there and getting on the field.” White said. “We had a couple of drops. Mike made plays. Harry [
Douglas] made plays. Brian Finneran was making plays. The little young rookie came in, Aaron Kelly, and he was making plays down the field.”

This looks like good news all-around. White will hopefully get his new contract, which will increase his fantasy value in the long run, especially with a developing
Matt Ryan at quarterback. And Kelly is starting to get high marks, which is great news for dynasty owners looking for a late-round sleeper in rookie drafts.

We stay in the division, but move south to sunny

Tampa, where, according to
Foxsports.com, it appears as though the Bucs will be saying goodbye to veteran
Brian Griese. Griese hasn’t reported to OTA sessions and the details of his release will be finalized in the coming days.

This should come as no surprise and is great news for
Josh Freeman dynasty owners. Now he has just
Luke McCown,
Byron Leftwich and
Josh Johnson to compete with; well that’s until the Buccaneers find another average quarterback on the free agent market.

Now we move to somewhere a little cooler to talk about a potential rookie star. According to the
NY Daily News,
Leon Washington has joined fellow running mate
Thomas Jones as a no-show in the team’s offseason program. Much like Jones,

Washington is frustrated with his slow moving contract talks.  However, the
Daily News also pointed out that unlike Jones there have been positive talks between the Jets and Leon Washington’s agent. 

As pointed out by Greg Kellogg on Tuesday night’s 

Fantasy Sharks Radio Show, Jones especially, is only hurting himself by sitting out. The good news in all this is that it has opened the door for
Shonn Greene to get a lot of reps. “He’s a stud,” rookie quarterback
Mark Sanchez said during the Jets rookie minicamp. “Hopefully, this is the infancy stage of a long tenure here.”

If Jones and Washington continue to sit out, and you factor in the strong Jets offensive line, it’s not unjustifiable for dynasty owners to rank Greene among the Top 2-3 rookie running backs in 2009 and beyond.

We head out west next, to sunny

Alameda,
Calif., where word from the
Oakland Tribune is that the Raiders feel rookie
Darrius Heyward-Bey will catch on. What’s interesting about this story is that Heyward-Bey dropped catchable passes on three straight drills during workouts last Friday. It is also worthy of noting here that the
Oakland Tribune also reported that quarterbacks
JaMarcus Russell and
Jeff Garcia are both struggling early on in minicamp workouts a few days earlier.

I really want to believe Russell will turn things around and that Heyward-Bey could be a rookie draft bargain in the second round, but I just can’t. Yes, the rookie from

Maryland is pretty much all the Raiders have at wide receiver, unless, of course, you consider
Johnnie Lee Higgins a fantasy threat. But Heyward-Bey is raw, not a very good route runner, has bad hands and plays for the speed-driven Oakland Raiders.    Enough said.

Moving back eastward we stop in

Tennessee where the

Nashville
Tennessean is reporting that running back 
Chris Johnson has set very high goals for the 2009 season. “I want to be NFL MVP and lead the league in rushing. I want to be named to another Pro Bowl. I like to set my goals high, and everything is possible,” Johnson said.

What are fantasy owners to do now? The last time he made promises like this last offseason he followed through on them, and had an unbelievable rookie campaign.    The best part is that the Titans want to give him more touches and are open to expanding his role.

“There’s places we can move him, routes we can run with him, looks we can do with him that we held back last year because I thought I was stretching him too much,” offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger said. “But C.J. needs to show he can do those things, and he’ll work at it. And the more he shows the more we can give him. If C.J. wants to learn it and work at it then we have a chance to move him all around the place.”

What’s he going to say in 2010 if he doesn’t pull a
Steven Jackson and follows through once again? Is he possibly the next
LaDainian Tomlinson?     


We move a little due north to

Cleveland where
The Plain Dealer points out that Browns president Mike Keenan hopes that
Braylon Edwards can have a bounce back season amidst all the trade rumors. And while it’s still possible that Edwards will be moved, as of now he remains a Cleveland Brown.

Edwards’ final destination will affect the kind of 2009 season rookie wide receivers
Brian Robiskie and
Mohamed Massaquoi will have, but in the long run shouldn’t hurt their value too much, unless Braylon stays put permanently.

The one to watch of the two is Massaquoi, who, according to the
Canton Repository, is taking his situation in stride and looking forward to learning from everyone, including his competition. “Me and Robo are both rookies, trying to learn the tricks of the trade,” Massaquoi said. “His dad … I mean, he’s respected around the country. Robo has been able to learn a lot. I’m just trying to take what I can from him.” The former

Georgia standout has been a class act early in mini-camps, and has the talent to be something special at the NFL level. Time will tell the rest of his story.     

We take a quick drive to

Detroit where there is plenty of talk surrounding
Brandon Pettigrew. Who’s talking? According to the

Detroit Free Press, that would be offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. 

“You want that production in the passing game,” Linehan said of the tight end position. “It starts with the blocking, though. That’s why Pettigrew was such a unique fit and profile for the position because he’s a blocker and a receiver, and to be an every-down tight end in this league, you have to have some special physical qualities as well.”

If good Linehan history repeats itself, Pettigrew could be a star. Back in the

Minnesota days when the Lions new offensive coordinator had
Randy Moss controlling defenses tight end,
 Jermaine Wiggins had a season where he led the team with 71 receptions and was third with 705 yards. And while Megatron Calvin Johnson isn’t quite
Randy Moss, he certainly will consume all the defensive attention.

And finally we fly over the Great Lakes and end up, ironically enough, in

Minnesota where the
St Paul Pioneer Press pointed out last week that
Visanthe Shiancoe wants to be the best tight end in the NFL. “I just want to build on to my game, add some bricks to my building. I want to be the best tight end in the NFL. The best ever. I want to be a force on this offense, and doing my part.”

Shiancoe is coming off a breakout season where he caught 42 passes for 596 yards and found the end zone seven times. Sure, he’s 28 years old, but he’s been working out heavily this offseason and is down to 3 percent body fat. If nothing else, it may be smart for fantasy owners to stash him and hope
Brett Favre returns in purple and gold. If that happens Shiancoe’s draft value in all formats is bound to go through the roof.

One last note:

As mentioned in Tuesday Night’s Fantasy Gameplan, site owner Tony Holm is one the experts participating in the all new state-of-the-art, first-of-its-kind, fantasy web site –
Rapiddraft.com. Log on today to see the new fantasy unleashed.  

Eric Huber is a staff writer for Fantasysharks.com.  If you want to talk dynasty or have a question, feel free to contact him at


e.huber12@yahoo.com

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